Lockdown

“I’m in a lockdown
I’m in a lockdown
Ain’t nobody else around
I’m in a lockdown
Lockdown

Got no fever
Got no shakes
Gotta watch my back
Whatever it takes
Got a face mask
And some rubber gloves
I’m washing my clothes
In an old bathtub

I’m in a lockdown
I’m in a lockdown
Keep my head close to the ground
I’m in a lockdown
Lockdown

Keeping my distance
At least six feet
And I’m microwaving
Everything I eat
I can’t watch the television
No, it’s all bad news
Over and over and over
It just gives me the blues”

• Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs (2020)

Looking back over my life, few things were as consequential as the CoVid Pandemic. Although I was fortunate in that no one close to me died, the impact of the disease was immeasurable. Here’s my recollection of those days.

The first human cases of COVID-19 occurred in Wuhan, China, in November 2019. The first human case in the United States was on January 21, 2020. One week later, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency. In February, I was planning on taking my mother to visit my 1-year-old grand-daughter in England, but we had to cancel because mom got sick. She said it was a bad cold- I’m not sure if it was CoVid as there was no testing at the time, but in hindsight she may have had an early case. Regardless, mom recovered and we wanted to reschedule our trip, but in March a travel ban was put into effect. The lock-down had begun and it was now officially being referred to as a pandemic. On March 17, 2020, the first case was reported in my small town of Harleysville PA. Now it was getting close to home. My inability to visit my son and his family in England was devastating. My first Facebook Post related to Covid was on April 18th, 2020- a photo from my grand-daughter in England:

Aside from being unable to travel, the biggest impact of CoVid for me was when it got our son in early April 2020. Jason was still living with us at the time. He was working at an addiction/mental health facility, and had daily exposure to at-risk patients at a time before safety protocols had been established for this new disease. Although there was still a lot to learn, it was clear it was an easily transmissible disease, people were dying from it, and the elderly were particularly at risk. Jason immediately went into isolation in our house, but we knew we had been exposed up until the time he was diagnosed. His main symptoms were fever, chest tightness, cough, body aches, and complete loss of taste. I clearly remember being completely terrified for both my son, as well as Eva and me since we were at risk because of our age. At the time there were no vaccines and no specific treatment. I couldn’t sleep for several days, living in fear. Thankfully Jason never needed to be hospitalized and recovered in a few weeks (aside from a lingering loss of taste.) By then, safety precautions were put into place, and because of his exposure, Jason was assigned the “CoVid” section of the facility, working with patients who tested positive on admittance. My next Facebook post relating to CoVid was a picture of Jason, returning to work:

On June 28, 2020, the CDC recommended that people “wear cloth face coverings in public settings and when around people who don’t live in your household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Cloth face coverings may help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others. Cloth face coverings are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings.” They noted that the community’s use of masks serves two primary purposes: to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets from exhalation into the environment (source control), and to reduce inhalation of these droplets through filtration for the wearer (personal protection). Mask wearing became a way of life. Just for fun I purchased a wide variety of masks and would wear them as a personal expression of how I was feeling at the time. I ended up with over 30 masks. Unfortunately, they later determined that surgical masks offered better protection than cloth masks, and my mask collection got boxed up for the memories.

While I was fortunate in that no one in my family died from CoVid, it was a daily occurrence during the pandemic to be reading posts about friends’ loved ones or famous people dying from the disease. One of my early Facebook posts concerned the passing of Fountains of Wayne musician Adam Schlesinger dying from CoVid at the age of 52. That was hard to take. I had previously worked one of his shows at Sellersville Theater. There were countless others as well- over 350,000 Americans died from CoVid in 2020 alone. And that does not include the thousands who survived but suffered long term effects from the disease. It was heart-breaking.

I won’t get too political here, but when the pandemic hit, the country was very polarized. I felt that as horrible as CoVid was, I was sure that it would bring everyone together, similar to 9-11, to help each other and fight this invisible enemy together. Sadly, that was not the case. In fact, it divided the country even more. Masks, vaccines, shut-downs, social distancing- there were strong opinions and anger all around. Every day was full of decisions- was it safe to go to the store for essentials, even if you were wearing a mask? I know many people would clean all their food containers as they were taking them out of the bags, although we never took it that far. Should we wear a mask if we were just going outside for a walk? We looked to the health and infectious disease experts to provide guidance. I understand how people can have differing views, but I will never understand the hatred and animosity towards people who were working around the clock trying to get us through this deadly pandemic. Personally, with a background in scientific research, I strongly admired those fighting this disease on the front lines, trying to keep us safe- health care workers, community leaders, researchers, epidemiologists, vaccine developers, etc. The fact that my idol, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was getting death threats was beyond my comprehension. Dr. Fauci’s lifetime work under numerous administrations, on AIDS, Ebola, Zika, CoVid and countless other global health emergencies, single handedly saved thousands of lives. He is a true American hero in my eyes, and yet he was getting death threats and needed around-the-clock security. At the local level, I depended on our local county commissioners to keep us updated on the status of CoVid within our community, and what we should be doing. I never missed their weekly live video updates with the latest data from our communities- How widespread was the disease? What were trends? How many deaths and hospitalizations and new cases were being reported? What were their recommendations for staying safe? We were very lucky to have a physician, Dr. Val Arkoosh, as the chair of our Montgomery County Commissioners, and she, along with vice chair Ken Lawrence, did an incredible job of keeping us informed.

“Three weeks ago, Montco hospitals had 39 COVID-19 patients, now they have 170. Contact tracing shows that most of this increase is associated with Halloween parties, private social gatherings, youth sports, adult and junior ice hockey, cheerleading, sleep overs, car pooling, and gatherings around sports. Close to 270 students and 100 school staff have tested positive for COVID-19 over the last several weeks. Our school Superintendents are increasingly concerned that they will have to functionally close due to lack of staff. Substitute teachers and certified bus drivers are nearly impossible to hire.” – November 14, 2020

As a retiree, people frequently asked me if I ever missed work. My answer was always a resounding “No way!” I had plenty to keep me busy- volunteering with many different organizations, going to concerts, hanging out with friends. That all changed with CoVid- everything shut down and I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. It was the first time I ever thought it would be nice to be working again. Then I found a way out of my funk- hiking! While I was used to hiking with friends, at the worst of the pandemic I opted to hike solo. It was good exercise and helped to clear my mind. For most of the pandemic, I followed the guidelines regarding masking outdoors, even if I was by myself, as I might pass other people on the trails who could be infected. I remember one time in particular when I was hiking on a narrow trail, wearing my mask, when I saw a big group of Girl Scouts coming in the other direction. I must admit I panicked a bit when I saw none of them were wearing masks- that was the CoVid fear factor back then. I knew one of the girls, and I subsequently found out that she ironically tested positive 2 weeks later. Needless to say, I was happy I was wearing a mask when I passed them on my hike. As the pandemic continued into the following year, I kept up with my hiking, and in 2021 completed a challenge of hiking 2,280 miles- an average of over 6 miles a day. It was a lifesaver to get me through the isolation of the pandemic.

Besides hiking, I always loved hearing live music. To have that stop was crushing. In its place, many of our favorite performers would frequently have “Facebook Live” concerts. I particularly remember tuning in to catch Cliff Hillis, John Faye, Jesse Terry, and others. You would then make on online donation to support the musician. Our favorite local venue, the Sellersville Theater, also had streaming concerts from an empty theater (the “Sound Booth Sessions”) from some of my favorite performers including AM Radio, Dan May, Christine Havrilla, Ben Arnold, and Ndichu, that I would watch from home. It was a difficult time for both musicians and the businesses that supported live music. I supported as many Facebook Live events as I could and became a show sponsor at Sellersville Theater to help support the music business during these difficult days. But in a short amount of time, I found that watching a concert on a computer screen was not near as enjoyable as attending a live show. It was a happy day when we could start attending live music events again. To keep things safe, many venues required the wearing of masks as well as proof of vaccination. While it helped many people feel safe in coming to shows, it sadly got some patrons upset as a violation of their rights. It was disheartening to see people get angry at places that were just trying to do the right thing. I never had a problem with following the safety rules anywhere I went.

At the time of the lock-down, mom was living in an apartment in a retirement community. The elderly in these communities were at a high risk of getting sick, so their ability to socialize became limited. I would talk to her on the phone and she always said she was OK, but in hindsight, I think like many of our seniors, the pandemic took a toll on mom’s mental and physical health. It was very tough being unable to visit her. It was during this time that I had to move her to an assisted living facility. Thankfully my son and his family had relocated back to the States, and mom was able to see her great-grand-daughter a few times after restrictions were lifted, before she passed in 2022.

As the vaccines and new treatments became available the number of new CoVId cases started dropping, the hospital beds were no longer over capacity, and things began opening up again. On February 25, 2022, the CDC changed its guidelines to suggest that most Americans no longer needed to wear masks, and no longer need to social distance or avoid crowded spaces. CoVid was still around, but the worst of the pandemic was over. I will never forget those years. It was certainly a memorable chapter in the story of my life.

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